The Dynastar Speed Zone 12 Ti is the 2017 incarnation of what was once a popular genre, the cruiser. Not as brutish as a race-ready GS ski, the cruiser nonetheless shares the same interests and terrain preferences. It isn’t ashamed to admit that it hates moguls and anything that looks like them, not so much because it couldn’t find its way around the cursed obstacles if so required, but because anything that slows it down is an unwelcome interruption in its course.

“Get your motor started,” encourages Boot Doctors’ Bob Gleason, a talented ski tester as well as one of world’s foremost authorities on bootfitting. Gleason calls the Speed Zone 12 Ti “A speedway star, smooth, predictable and without a speed limit.”

If the Speed Zone 12 has a tragic flaw, it’s impatience with those less gifted. Like many Dynastars over the years, it wants to be pushed and angled by someone with a racing background. Although it can make short radius turns, making slow SR turns is not on its bucket list.

Don’t even ask about smearing through crud in lieu of carving. These edges were made to cut into a Chamonix couloir that hasn’t held soft snow since Charlemagne. The Speed Zone 12 loves soft snow… about 20 days after it’s fallen.